Have you tried Queen Mary's? It keeps coming up everytime I log onto here

Interesting topic! Done it :)

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If I was interviewed I heard about it anything between 2hours after interview to a month.

Formal offers tend to be given via email now. I now have an unconditional PhD offer and I still haven't received paperwork about it yet!

The PhD I was offered I heard within two hours of leaving the interview room, one I heard 24 hours after (declined), leeds was a week after interview (not surprising declined), warwick was 2-3 days (declined), Cambridge were meant to tell me within a week but it turned out to be a month by the time I got a decision-but I have since found out it was due to a second set of funding falling through.

There was huge contrast in my interview experiences. I found that the bigger the interview panel, the harsher they will be and the more likely they will pull you apart. I also found that women were harsher than males, one woman at my Leeds interview took an instant dislike to me and wondered why I had an undergraduate project in malaria, but wanted to go for a PhD in HIV. Everything I said, she pulled apart.

I found that being organised helped, I took my UG write up to the PhD interview that I later got offered- one of the panel wasn't talking at the time and instead was flipping through my project!

But Good luck and don't lose faith in yourself- it's tough times out there and more people are applying for PhD than ever. It only takes one supervisor to like you and you have the position!

I went to my first parasitology conference in April as an undergraduate looking for a PhD, and I had my CV uploaded onto my blackberry so I could simply send it to potential supervisors if needed. I do like the business card idea, I will have to remember that for the next time I attend conference.

I was told by PhD students not to simply stand in front of your poster, be near it but not on top of it as people aren't likely to stand and read it if you are standing on top of it! Luckily for me the poster presentation to my left did not have anyone presenting it so I had some space.

A few questions I got asked were (I presented about medical pharmacology to treat malaria infections):
~Explain what you did
~Who funded this work?
~What are you doing? i.e. topic, further exploration of area, Masters/PhD/PD/etc
~What is happening next with the project?

I found even if things were printed in black and white I still had to talk to people about it!

Enjoy the experience is what I learnt! Talk to people, if people ask about your poster ask what they do, etc
And attend the conference dinners, even if you are with people you know, there is always a randomer who joins the table!

I have managed to get a 4 year BBSRC PhD straight from BSc. It is possible, one of the reasons I think I was successful in getting a PhD straight from UG in that I have 1) Attended Conference 2)Presented a poster and won a poster prize 3)Already have a publication under my belt.

I have since found out that at the interview for the PhD I got offered, I was the only UG student being interviewed and that I was a "Wild Card" interviewee. After speaking to a few supervisors, it is in a supervisors interest to get younger students who could potentially go onto bigger things in their careers, which helps their's as they helped you get there. I was interviewed by NIMR and they make all their applicants sit in a hall until their interview and it's amazing how many people are after PhDs with varying amounts of experience.

I think the key is to stand out against other students that have applied. I.e. Masters in a different country, Nuffield funding, etc

Insome light, if these people can't be bothered to do the work why are they at University?
Is it simply to keep wealthy mummy and daddy happy?- I knew plenty of people that we at University simply as they didn't want to get a job and mummy and daddy were paying for it!

The country is in a poor state! Out of the people I graduated with at the beginning of July, only about 7 of the 42 graduating had something they wanted lined up i.e. jobs, PhDs. The rest were having to look at second choices.

The next few years for academia are going to be tough, especially with the new £9k UG tuition fees coming in.
They will find more people on the unemployment line then there currently is!
The Government need to sit up and listen, there are some bright people in the UK who cannot get jobs, post-docs that can't use their PhD training, etc; and industry is fairing just as bad.

Lets hope that the UK economy will see the light at the end of a tunnel and not the lights of an oncoming train (knowing the UK's luck, it will be a german train built by Siemens after the UK gave them a big contract leading to the train builders up in the midlands are being laid off!! ).

======= Date Modified 28 Jul 2011 16:25:52 =======

I was always advised that even if they don't read it, it's a good thing to have attached to a CV as you can get more of an idea about people than just a CV. And always write covering letters! Certainly if you are sending a generic CV; I found with my PhD covering letter it was basically a really short summary of my research achievements, and what I could skills I could already bring to the group and then said something like "It would be an amazing opportunity for me to start my career at XYZ University allowing me to take my first footsteps into world of research" basically something to show that you have taken the time to change your covering letter!

I don't know whether they still do, but the student room website offer a free service by "PS helpers"- basically students who have gained the respect on the student room (and have the time...) to look through personal statements. Might be worth just looking to see whether they still do it!

It's difficult to know what to say tbh. Prehaps rework the personal statement first, then attempt to get the covering letter to complement the personal statement.

Do you still have access to the careers service from your previous university? or your dissertation supervisor?

To be honest, it was the easiest out of all the interviews I had! Basically it was meant to be 3 face-to-face interviews, but it turned out to be 2 face-to-face and a telephone interview. 1 was with the PG research director of the school of pharmacology and the other was with the supervisor I was interested in working with. The telephone interview was bad, but he choose to ring me just as I'd gotten in from a whole day of lab so I had all my lab diary to do, so not to my surprise I didn't get the funding for the PhD!

What do you mean by a "keep it real" letter?

I am moving away from home and friends who I did my bachelors degree with, to start my PhD at QMUL. I don't really know anyone in London and my fear from reading some of the posts on here, is that I could become easily isolated. Since I accepted the offer, I have heard that QMUL doesn't really have a big PG community which it's making me further worry about moving away from the midlands.

I know this sounds completely stupid but has anyone else had the same problem? And how did you overcome it?

No joke, September 2010-April 2011 I applied for 18 funded PhDs!

Have you seen this? MRes European Scientific Research Training

This course was my back up just in case I didn't get a PhD. I spoke to the Professor involved and what happens is you pay for accomodation in Staffs and tuition fees until December, then in January you transfer to a partner EU lab and the European Union pay for you to stay in the country for 9 months.

Do you have a big university near where you are living? The reason I have asked is that I got 1 week (better than nothing) upaid work experience during my A-levels- it certainly helped with my Nuffield summer application and it's come up in PhD interviews.

Cambridge interviews aren't as bad as undergraduates make out! Mine was pretty straight forward and there was no panel interview like I have since had at other institutions.

Don't give up and keep us posted :)

I didn't get brilliant grades, I averaged a 2.1 throughout my final year whilst I was applying for PhD but managed to do well in my finals and finished with a first overall, but I still got PhD interviews and I got a PhD offer before my final result was known.

You have to be positive! The majority of Universities ask for a 2.1 or 1st, therefore if you got a 2.1 overall they will still consider you! When I started writing my personal statement, my bachelors research project supervisor told me to write down ALL my work experience even down to working in shop at the weekends. Then the skills that you have learnt that could possibly be transferred to a PhD such as time managable, the ability to get out of bed, etc

I know it's tough at the moment with funding issues, but if you can get a research assistantship for a few weeks or months that should get you some more experience (you might have to take it unpaid though...). If you are still struggling to get a research assistantship- prehaps consider a MRes or the EU science training scheme on offer at a few universities.

Just keep :) and stay positive! There is plenty of PhD students and wannabe PhD students on here to help you through what seems like a mindfield of putdowns but just keep trying!

Have you considered putting a few applications in to test the water?

Not really, you probably can't be a picky as you could in other times of the year.

As Podge mentioned, PhDs are coming back on here as their first choice candidate failed to make the grade. Just keep trying! And don't lose faith in yourself- I had 5 PhD (with stipend) interviews before I got a PhD offer!

Usually PhDs start Sept/Oct then January, but if you keep you eye out there are some that want immediate start!

I saw my Supervisor on Friday and I asked whether I should start reading around the topic, he said it was a good idea given I haven't read a scientific journal since April. I've been sent 5 papers and told not to worry too much about reading them, but when I start in October it will hopefully allow me to get back into the swing of reading journals.

Also Thank-you for all the advice on here! I know I don't start for another ~8 weeks but it's better to be prepared!